


Mates

by DarkJediQueen



Series: Fluff Bingo Bonus Round [3]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Babies, Fluff Bingo, Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:22:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23309836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkJediQueen/pseuds/DarkJediQueen
Summary: Stiles didn't realize what he was going to be gaining by coming home.
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Series: Fluff Bingo Bonus Round [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1671199
Comments: 32
Kudos: 366
Collections: Just Write! Fluff Bingo, Minions' writings





	Mates

**Author's Note:**

> **Year** : Current  
>  **Spoilers** : Entire Series  
>  **Notes** : Prompts come from the Just Write Discord Server's 2019 Fluff Bingo challenge. Bonus round for fluff needed during COVID-19 kerfuffle. For the prompt: Babies  
>  **Beta** : Grammarly

Stiles wasn't sure what he did to the world that warranted someone showing up at his house at two in the morning, but he was pretty sure that it wasn't a good thing. It was never good when someone showed up after eight at night and before seven in the morning. Even though nothing had gone wrong in the town since Stiles had moved back after a few years working in New York to get the experience he needed running computer systems, he still knew that something was wrong. Rubbing at his chest where his skin was wrinkled and itched from having the blanket bunched under him, he frowned. The knock had happened again, but that wasn't what was making him frown. He heard something else. It sounded like crying. Like a baby crying. The knock happened again, so at least Stiles knew that someone wasn't leaving said baby on his porch step. Or at least he hoped they weren't.

Jerking the door open, three things happened. Stiles nearly shut the door again, the baby started to cry harder, and Derek growled at him, his fangs showing. Derek looked like utter shit. He looked worse than he ha that time that he tried to get Stiles to cut off his arm. Which was saying something because Derek had looked like shit then. Stiles hadn't seen Derek since he had gone off to college in DC and worked in the FBI internship for a short while. He had figured out that he liked the solving crimes part but not so much the grueling work put into covering beats and various things, so he had gone to college to be someone who was the science behind solving crimes. Then when the guy who had been doing it for years for the Beacon Hills Sheriff's department retired, Stiles had blind submitted his resume for it as well as the FBI training that he had gone through. He had passed the Academy in a different format so that he could work Federal cases but hadn't wanted to be FBI anymore. Rafe McCall had been great for that. FLETC had also been done, and Stiles was glad of that. It was overkill for working at the country Sheriff's office, but he was loaned as needed to FBI agents when they were in the area for other cases and other counties for cases where his kind of expertise was needed.

The blind resume had gone over well, and everyone who was part of the process had agreed to him being hired. Only those who needed to know his name did, and even his background check had been sanitized of everything. His hometown had been listed as Beacon Hills, so it wasn't like no one understood why a blind process was done. The interview for him was done and typed up by the next county over's Sheriff, and it had been a good one. Then Stiles had shown up for the final in-person interview only to have it waved when he stepped into the room. His father had laughed his ass off when it really was that no one but him had figured out it was Stiles. Parrish was officially in charge of him, and the one who was to write him up if needed, but Stiles wasn't going to push that all that much. He didn't want to ever take the chance that a case would fail because he did stupid stuff.

"Can I help you?" Stiles asked.

"I can't get her to stop crying, and Malia said that you were like the baby whisperer when it comes to getting them to stop. You got the twins to stop crying even when she couldn't."

"So, you came to my place at two in the morning?" Stiles asked.

"She's been crying since six. You are my last hope."

Stiles raised his eyebrows, but he stepped back to allow Derek into his house. He waved toward the couch and shut the door before locking it. The deadbolt moved, and Derek looked at Stiles in shock.

"Secondary deadbolt on the floor. It's coated in a mountain ash lacquer that completes a ring around the house. It's why I don't throw that deadbolt unless there is an issue. You can turn it to break it and leave, but you can't get in from the outside. It was as close to a concession on that whole front that I was willing with Scott."

"Malia said that you've not really talked to him since you came back."

"Why would I? I'm human and not pack. Haven't been pack since just after the Nogitsune was taken care of. He still doesn't trust me, but he can't get me to leave with the truce that he has with the Sheriff's station. Dad made sure that he could run his force the way that he wanted and unless Scott can prove that I am a threat to the pack, I'm here for good. We aren't here to talk about me, though. We are here to talk about this little one. What's her name?"

"Sasha. She's just over two months old. I just can't get her to stop crying. She's never been this bad."

"Well, lay her down on the couch and come with me. There are enough pillows to brace her in. It's not like she can cry more just from not being held. Her lungs are pretty well developed, I would say." Stiles walked to the kitchen to wait for Derek to join him. He grabbed the toy set that he kept in the freezer for when Malia brought over the twins a year before and had just never taken it out. He made sure there were no holes in it. Then he grabbed a towel as Derek slumped down to the chair in the kitchen. He dropped his head down onto his hands, and Stiles had to resist the urge to pat him on the back.

Stiles walked to where Sasha was still bawling her head off, and he grabbed his glass from earlier in the evening and took a sip of it. It was still as bitter as it had been. He reached into Sasha's mouth and rubbed around on her gums. She sunk her teeth down on him, and there was a hitch in her breath ad he found what he was looking for. Stiles pulled his finger free before dipping that same finger into the glass. He shook it off and then rubbed it on her gum. Yeah, it wasn't the usual standard for that, but it worked better than ice when one was as worked up as Sasha was. Once she was calm, Stiles would give her a teething ring. The shock of cold was going to be less than and hopefully wouldn't make her cry just from that. Malia's twins had been terrors as they hated the cold.

Sasha hiccuped a little and then started to quiet down. Stiles rubbed the teething toy over her gums a little, and she seemed to calm down the rest of the way. Stiles scooped her up and settled her into his arms and kept the toy in her mouth as she gummed at it. He walked into the kitchen, where Derek was looking at him in a way that Stiles hadn't been looked at in a while like he was special. The last time had been Derek. For those blissful few months between Derek figuring out that he was legal long before he thought and then the world crashed around them. Which was a shock as what had made the world crash around them was the fact that Derek didn't want kids, and Stiles did. It had been a heady topic for them to discuss just months into dating, but it had come up when Malia had decided that she wanted kids without getting married. She hadn't had them until she was settled into her job, but she did live with the father. Neither of them was in love, but they both wanted kids without the hassle of a relationship, so they had four between them. They were married for the sake of insurance and other legal matters, but when they wanted sex, they went out for it. It was the strangest relationship that Stiles had witnessed, but they were good friends. Best friends, if Stiles believed Malia. John worked from home and was able to care for the kids between jobs on the computer.

"How in the hell did you do that?"

"Some babies can get teeth as early as two months. I did. I felt around in her mouth and found the spot. Now I used a little whiskey which given that she's a wolf won't affect her, but it did numb her a little, and then I used the toy. Some kids freak out when cold hits their gums. I wouldn't go for the alcohol all the time, but after this, she will learn that the cold on her gums means that she'll feel better. There is baby Orajel and the like, but I have no clue how they work with her body." Stiles dropped down into the chair across from Derek and looked down at Sasha. She had the Hale nose, so Stiles knew that it was either Derek's kid or maybe even Peter's. Peter wasn't all that paternal, so Stiles could see him giving her up to Derek to raise. Derek would take her in, so she was with family. That had to be why Derek had her to begin with. He didn't want kids, but foster care was probably a big no for him.

Well, it wasn't anything that involved him. Sasha made a cooing noise, and she was gumming at the toy when Stiles looked down at her. She was a pretty little girl, and Stiles could see her getting a lot of attention. Derek would find himself a wife or husband to help raise her at some point soon. It wasn't like Derek didn't get all of the attention in town anyway. Not since he had taken over a diner that the owner had been retiring from. He wasn't the best at talking to customers, according to Stiles' father, but he did his best. Stiles knew his working hours as they were the same every single week so that he could go in there and eat with other deputies when it was lunchtime for him. He had stayed away from Derek, and it had been working so far.

"I'd stop at the store and pick up a bunch of these. Mine's in the freezer, but they really shouldn't be. I have a spot in the front in the door that doesn't actually freeze anything solid. A spot at the back right where the cold comes out of the fridge would work as well, you don't want to have her hurt her gums. Don't get ones with liquid. This one is rubber. I still check it for holes and things because germs can get in there, and they don't always come out. I don't know how robust a baby werewolves' immune system is. You can take that one with you. I have a whole bunch more in there. It'll keep her quiet until you can get some in your fridge. I would get on in the freezer and just let it be in there long enough to get cold before giving it to her if she needs another when this one is done for. She's too young to be able to grip well, so you will have to be the one to hold it. It doesn't help when she wakes in the night, but maybe in an hour, you can get some sleep."

"I don't think I'm safe to drive."

"Well, then you can pull out the sofa bed and sleep down here. I have to get back to bed because I have an early shift tomorrow. Help yourself to food and drink." Stiles stood up and passed over Sasha. He waited to make sure that Derek had a hold of her before he fully let go. He slipped up into the bedroom and shut his door. That closed another mountain ash ring, Derek wasn't getting into his bedroom.

* * *

Stiles figured that it would be it. That he would usher Derek out of his house, and everything would go back to normal. He had not seen Derek that next morning the werewolf had left with Sasha, and Stiles had hoped it was good riddance.

Then Stiles had run into them at the store, the bakery, pretty much everywhere that he went. So he stopped going anywhere that he had run into Derek at. Stiles was the master of ignoring a problem until it went away. He could shop in Beacon City and do everything there. He had weekends off unless a big case came in. It's part of why he was salary. He could cover things that cropped up at any point in time.

Stiles spent Saturday shopping and doing everything that he needed to that would involve leaving his house and then would head home to play games or Skype Malia. Even though she was living in Beacon Hills, Stiles tried to stay out of the pack things that were going on, so he didn't visit Malia. She came to him. It was just better that way. The pack could content themselves that he wasn't being a part of anything to do with them if he was only in contact with one of them.

Most of the pack had moved on, Malia and Derek were the only ones who were from the days when Stiles was in the pack. Lydia had moved to London after graduation and was in a weird assed relationship with Jackson while he was still with Ethan. Stiles walked with her once a week, usually when he was getting ready for work one day, and she was tucking in for the evening. It was a weird friendship that hadn't weathered as well as Stiles would have hoped.

Dropping down at his table after getting dinner going, Stiles looked at the emails that he had on his phone. His computer was up in the office, as well as his work laptop. There was sometimes that a trace was all that was needed or information looked up, so the work laptop was easy to use. Stiles flicked through the emails, trashing most of them, and then he checked his spam. There was an email from Lydia in there for nearly a week before. He frowned as he read over the arrival time for her, Jackson, and Ethan to Beacon Hills just as there was a knock at his door. He cursed and looked at the food on his stove before going to let Lydia into his house.

"I'm sorry. Your email went to spam," Stiles said as he opened the door. Only it wasn't just Lydia who was there. Jackson and Ethan were behind her, and they both looked like they had the shit kicked out of them. "Get inside."

Stiles stepped aside, and they all three slipped into the house. Stiles shut the door and threw the secondary deadbolt.

"What the hell happened?"

"Well, we were coming back to Beacon Hills as Lydia's new job is opening up a new branch in California, and she chose here as she wanted to go home. Jackson and I can pick up work anywhere, given what we do. He's already put in a few feelers to local law offices," Ethan said.

"And what about the pack?"

"Jackson's a Hale by bite, and that means that he can live on Hale land with no issue. McCall's pack is a little more fragile these days, and they pretty much just protect themselves according to what Jordan has told me," Lydia said.

"I agree, but Derek's still part of that pack."

"Yup, and he protects everything that McCall should be," Lydia said. She looked at Jackson and nodded her head. Jackson held out a book, and Stiles took it. The cover was blank, so Stiles opened it up. There was not a standard title page. Instead, it just seemed to be talking about Alphas. Stiles moved to his chair and sat down in it. The words were not that hard to understand, even though it was in Latin. He had learned it after the Kanima thing so that they weren't left in the lurch anymore, only to have it all be for naught as he was kicked out of the pack. Derek hadn't followed or cared about that and got his help despite what Scott wanted. Which was how the relationship had started.

"This is the transfer the Alpha spark from one to another," Stiles said.

"Yes."

"You want to take it from-" Stiles choked on his words as Jackson's eyes flared red at him. "Holy fucking shit."

"We were attacked by a group that wanted to be like Deucalion, and Jackson killed one of them. We came here immediately. That was in LA. We already alerted the pack there and the Alpha, who agreed that getting out of LA was best and back where we were on our ground. There is another Hale lineage Alpha in town." Lydia looked smug about that, but then there wasn't anything else to be but smug.

"So why this?" Stiles held up the book.

"I don't want it. Ethan agrees that he would rather not have it. I thought that maybe Derek would want the Spark back."

"He's got a kid. Three months old at this point."

"A kid?" Lydia asked.

"Yeah. It's a Hale, but I didn't ask if it was his or not. He never said he was her father. Just that he needed to stop her from crying. I worked him through the early teething that she was starting, and now I can't get away from him. I've started to shop in Beacon City, so I stop running into him."

"He's got a kid?" Ethan asked.

Stiles understood where that was coming from. Derek wasn't the most fatherly of the pack.

"He dumps you and then goes off and grabs the first kid he can?" Jackson asked.

Stiles looked at him and then at Lydia and then at Ethan. Lydia had told them. They had told them exactly why Stiles and Derek had broken up, and they both looked pissed.

"Look, it's fine. He probably grew up or something in the years since then. I'm not upset, mad, or anything like it. I just want to stay the fuck away from him. He'll probably jump at the chance now that he's got a kid. Since the area is mostly calm and the police do more than Scott, I'm sure that he'll be fine with a super chill only getting together on the moons kind of thing. I've got his address here." Stiles jumped off of the couch and rushed to where he had stuffed the addresses that his father had given him of everyone in the pack so he could stay away from them. "Hell, you might end up with Malia as well."

"And her terrible twins?" Lydia asked.

"They aren't that bad, but with her as a mom, what do you expect?" Stiles thought the twins were wonderful. They did listen they needed to and never did anything that was half as stupid as Stiles had done when he was a child that age, according to his dad.

* * *

Stiles was running in the woods and smiling to himself. He was nearly done with his long run of the week. He usually just used the gym, but the weather was nice, so being out in the air was wonderful. Besides, the woods were safer than they had ever been with Derek in control of his pack. The power exchange eight months before had gone through just perfectly. Jackson was happier, even calling Stiles fewer names than usual while Derek was more centered, according to Stiles's father.

The pack would meet only at the full moon unless something came up that they needed to deal with. Stiles had only caught a single case in the eight months that he had known was supernatural related and had to let his father know that he could let the pack know.

The sound of something running at him had Stiles stopping. He looked around and tried to figure out where it was coming from. It sounded small, and it wasn't until he felt something hit his knees that he figured out it sounded small because it was. He looked down at the wolf pup that had run into him. He frowned as he looked at it. Yeah, there were those who were trying to introduce wolves back into California, but he wasn't aware there were many in the area. The pup looked up at him, cocking its head to the side and then started to try and climb him.

Stiles dropped down to his haunches and reached out to pet. It could be a hybrid that someone had bred. It wasn't that strange as he had seen some that looked fully wolf even though they were only a quarter. The pup climbed up into Stiles' pseudo lap and flopped onto it's back so he could get the belly. This was someone's pet who had got away from them. He couldn't hear anyone calling out, so Stiles scooped the pup up and started toward where his Jeep was. He would have to take it to the vet and see if they had someone looking for a puppy. After he got dressed and ready. He wasn't going to Scott's practice in anything less than his good clothes.

The pup was easy to entertain as he drove back to his place. He had bought a house that was on the opposite side of town that he had grown up in for several reasons. One this was in the heart of what had become the LGBTQ+ crowd, and Stiles likes that given everything else in his life was messed up. Even though he wasn't a full cop, he had gone through the local academy just like the other deputies had.

Stiles had stopped running into Derek everywhere, so he was quite happy with being able to do things in Beacon Hills again. Pulling into his driveway, Stiles didn't even get a chance to get out before the puppy was going over the side door. Stiles jumped out as fast as he could, but the puppy ran up the stairs to wait for him at the door. He looked at it in shock. Stiles wondered if he was dreaming a little bit. He wasn't sure.

Unlocking the door, Stiles pushed it open, and the puppy ran inside. He watched it climb onto the couch and then curl into a ball. He wondered just what in the hell was going on. Stopping at the table inside the door, Stiles picked up the phone there and dialed the number for Scott's.

"Beacon Hills Vet, Doctor McCall speaking. How may I help you?"

"Scott, it's Stiles. I was running this morning and came across a hybrid wolf pup. It's friendly enough that it jumped on my couch, and I do believe it is asleep. I was going to run it into you but thought a call might work best. I can text you a picture if you want. So that people can verify if it's theirs or not."

"I don't have anyone who brings a wolf hybrid in here, Stile, so I would let the station know as well since we really don't have a dog warden in the close area."

"Sure." Stiles dug his cell phone out and made a clicking noise so that the pup would look at him. He checked the picture and stopped. "Fuck."

"Stiles?" Scott asked.

"Yeah, I think that I should really call the station. These people probably won't be looking for a pup they will be talking about their child running off. Lens flare."

"It's a werewolf? I thought only old family line werewolves could shift like that?"

Stiles walked to his back door, not even shocked that there was a wolf sitting on his back porch. He opened the door and let Derek inside.

"Never mind at all, Scott. The father has arrived to pick her up. At least he didn't try and break down my door, something else stupid like that!" Stiles yelled out even though he knew he didn't have to, and Derek would hear him anyway.

"Derek?" Scott asked.

"Yup. I wonder what the hell the youngest that someone has ever done that before is. Weird for an eleven-month-old yes?"

"I have no clue. I've gotta go."

Scott hung up, and Stiles just shrugged his shoulder at nothing and then headed for the living room. Derek was on his couch, wrapped around Sasha, who was curled up and asleep. Derek was looking at Stiles like he was afraid that Stiles was going to do something.

"I'm just going to go shower, and then we can talk. I'll bring pants down." Stiles fled up to his bedroom, shutting the door. He stripped off his running clothes and wondered just how his luck had gone that bad that quickly. It felt like he was just getting back into a good life, and then Derek crashed into it, or at least the kid seemed to be, bringing Derek along.

The shower did nothing to remove the tension in Stiles' body. He sighed as he opened his bathroom door, a towel wrapped around his lower body. He stopped when he saw the two wolves asleep on his bed. He looked at the door to see that the deadbolt had been set but that it had been shut after that. Stiles hadn't done something like that in a very long time.

Derek lifted his head and looked at Stiles before he laid his head down again, it curled around his pup. Stiles swallowed through the emotions that were going through him. He knew exactly what Derek was trying to claim with hijacking Stiles' bed, but they were a long way away from any point where that was something that Stile thought was okay. Sasha was there, though, and Stiles refused to have a fight of any kind in front of her. That just wasn't the way that he was. He grabbed the clothes that he wanted to change into and slipped back into the bathroom, not coming out until he was fully dressed. He found a pair of sweatpants that were a little bigger on Stiles, hoping that they fit Derek.

"When you are ready to talk man to man, I'll be in the kitchen." Stiles threw the sweat pants over Derek's head, and then he stomped out of the bedroom.

Derek had no right coming back into Stiles' life like he was, not with a kid along for the ride. Not after the way that they had ended things with Derek telling Stiles that he would never be the kind of man who started a family, he would never be the kind of man that Stiles wanted him to be

Stiles, though, hadn't thought that Derek would be anyone other than who he was. That he would never be someone who hurt those that he loved, not like that. For those few months, they had been happy as hell. Yeah, it was strange to date someone that he knew so well, so much about their personal lives. Stiles had loved Derek, but Derek had told him that he didn't love him. He couldn't love him.

Derek had told Stiles that Kate Argent had burned out Derek's ability to love in the same way that she had burned down his house. That Stiles had never been anything other than a body warming his bed and chasing away the loneliness. Stiles could still hear those words coming from his mouth, the deadness to his eyes as he said it. The way that the words rang true. It had been every single one of Stiles' fears.

Stiles hauled off and hit the fridge, his knuckles screaming in pain, and the fridge not even scuffed. He didn't care. The pain was enough to help him calm down. The panic attack that he had felt starting was stopped. He had learned a few coping mechanisms for them since he had been alone since he had left for college. His freshman roommate had learned, but they had parted ways after that. Stiles hadn't even tried with his sophomore one, and then he was living in an apartment with four other people to help save money.

Grabbing the water kettle, Stiles filled it up with from the water pitcher and then started to set out what he needed for tea. It was a calming ritual that he had learned to help himself calm down when he was pissed off. A girl in one of his psychology classes had talked about it and then showed him. He made enough for two. He would drink the second cup if Derek didn't come down before he was done with his first.

The creak of the stairs just as the timer went off that the tea was ready told Stiles that Derek had finally figured out that Stiles wasn't coming back up. Stiles didn't want to have this talk, he didn't want to sully his bedroom by having that talk there.

"Stiles," Derek said, his voice cracked from the disuse of being in his wolf form.

"When did she start doing that?" Stiles asked.

"This was her first time. Last night was the full moon, and we were napping. I woke up, and she was gone, so I followed her scent. I recognize your scent and then the smell of the Jeep. So I rushed here. I'm sorry that she ran to you."

"I thought she was a hybrid pup until she flashed her eyes at me."

"She likes you."

"Yeah. I guess she does. So is she yours? You've never actually said."

"I'm sure that you would have heard the gossip before now."

"Everyone in town knows not to gossip about you to me. I walk away from them. I started it when I was coming home from college. I don't need to know a damned thing about your life. I only ask because I know she's a Hale. She's got the nose and the shift."

"I was dating a woman, and we used condoms, and she was supposedly on birth control. One day after sex, I was pulling off the condom when I saw that it was damaged. There was a hole in it. She freaked out, but it wasn't...she was freaked out about me noticing, not the fact that it happened. I opened up every single condom and found that each of the packages had a hole in it. She had been doing it on purpose. I took her to court and sued for custody. Her best friend stepped forward and told the court that she planned on getting custody and a lot of money from me or marrying me and then divorcing me so that I would have to pay her child support and alimony."

"How did that go?"

"Well, I didn't realize that in absentia, your father had tried Kate and got her thrown into jail after it was found that she was alive for statutory rape. It was brought up in court that the last time I had a relationship with a woman like that, that had happened. It didn't look good on her. Especially when she screamed out that I should have been thankful that anyone wanted me for anything."

Stiles took that all in. He knew what his father had done. There hadn't been a lot of proof, but there had been enough that had not timed out and two cases that had been found post-Derek about what Kate did. In the end, she had been found guilty on seven counts of arson, over forty of murder, and two counts of statutory rape. The only two that had been not timed out on being prosecutable.

It had been done because his father wanted to make sure that Hunters knew that they were breaking real laws and those laws applied to them. It had sent a ripple through the Hunter community that they needed to self-police, or law enforcement was going to do it for them.

"So why are you here? Why up there in my bed?"

"About a year after you left, I regretted everything. I hated how I had acted toward you. I hated how much I had hurt you with lies."

"And?" Stiles asked. He dropped his mug to the table and then walked over to set Derek's down as well. He sat down in the chair and waved for Derek to take the one opposite.

"So I set about changing my life. I stopped hiding out in the loft. I stopped treating myself like I was guilty. I got counseling. Your father found a therapist that was in the know for his deputies to see, and I asked if I could get their name. It was hard work, and it took years. I knew I had to fix myself before I could add anyone to my life. It thought that Sabrina might be it. I wanted to propose and us to start thinking of living together, but that was a pipe dream. So Sasha became my focus."

"So it was lies. Everything you told me was lies."

"Stiles."

"Nope. No way. Don't even. I asked you for a single thing when he started to date, no lies. I don't give a flying fuck that you lied to me to break up with me. I don't even give a fuck if you were lying to yourself when you broke up with me. One thing Derek and you couldn't even do that. Get your daughter and get the fuck out of my house." Stiles stood up and rushed out the back door. He didn't want to watch Derek leave. He hadn't wanted to the first time, and now it was happening again.

Stiles moved to the side of the house and waited to hear the front door shut before he moved back inside. He knew the deadbolt so that no one could get inside, not even human, and he dropped down onto his couch. He was numb, and he wasn't sure that he was ever going to not be numb.

* * *

"Stiles, I need you to track a phone for me, please," Noah asked as stepped into Stiles' command center as everyone called it. Stiles just called it his lair.

"Sure, Daddio. Number?" Stiles brought up the software and waited to get the number. It was one of the batches of numbers that were in use for cells in the Beacon Hills area. He hit enter and waited for the software to ping. It was off of a few different towers and would take time to locate more than that. Thankfully, whoever's number it is, was on it.

"Well?" Noah asked.

"Working on it. It's active, so as long as it keeps on pinging, I can find it. Okay, she's at the diner."

"Shit." Noah grabbed his radio and called for all units to go to the diner.

"Dad?" Stiles asked, worried a little bit about Derek. He was on shift at the moment, Sasha, along with him as she always was when he worked. He didn't let anyone but pack watch her, according to Malia.

"It's Sabrina's cell. She was released and is on probation but supposed to be staying in Beacon City and not inside of Beacon Hills. I got a tip that she was seen in town and the deputies haven't been able to find her. I got her number from her parole officer, and he's on his way into town now to take her back. She'll go back in for the rest of her sentence as she has a restraining order on her and has since she was first taken to court. She gave up all parental rights to Sasha."

"Sheriff," a voice called over the radio.

"Go," Noah said.

"We have a hostage situation. Derek got everyone but himself out of the diner, but Sabrina is in there with a gun pointed at Derek. I'm pretty sure that I heard wolfsbane when we called, and Derek picked up the phone," Parrish said. 

Stiles wasn't sure what was going on, but he followed his Dad, grabbing his laptop bag and jumping into his cruiser. His dad didn't try and get him to stop. If there was someone on hand that could work, it would save them a call and time that could be used to actually be doing something. 

The diner was surrounded, and Stiles could just see Derek standing with his back to the counter, his face looking toward where the kitchen was. He was tense. Stiles opened his laptop after rolling down the window. He would stay where he was, as it was safer than being anywhere else. 

Looking to see what he could see, Stiles saw that Derek's phone was on the counter. He brought up the app that would call numbers and called Derek's cell. Derek jerked, but with his elbow, he tapped at the screen. 

"You replaced me, Derek!" Sabrina yelled, and Derek jerked. 

"Replaced you? You wanted nothing to do with us when you realized that you had lost all ability to get money from. You never even wanted her. You just wanted the money. 

"So who the hell is Papa?" Sabrina asked.

Stiles swallowed, and he felt like he was intruding on a matter that he shouldn't, but he needed to know if she was going to start firing. He knew the deputies had a parabolic mic on the shop, but that meant nothing if they couldn't pick up subtle things. 

"I should just put this bullet in your brain."

"You are going to jail. Why would you rob Sasha of her only parent? To get back at me? I'd be dead. That's not getting back at me. That's hurting her."

"Well, you got her out of here. I was going to kill her."

Stiles knew that Derek was going to go insane with that. If there was one thing that one didn't ever do, it was threatening to kill the child of an Alpha or any child around an Alpha. Stiles threw his laptop to his father's seat and then took off. He heard the deputies yelling at him, but Stiles could also see Derek getting ready to launch himself at Sabrina. That wasn't going to be good because if she got in in the heart or in the head with that bullet and it was wolfsbane, he would die. There was no coming back from that. 

Jerking the door open, Stiles entered the diner. 

"Who the fuck are you?"

"Umm...Stiles."

"Stiles? What the fuck is a Stiles?"

"Well, I'm a Stiles, and the Stiles is me. Been my name since I was a kid. Used be called Mischief as well. I couldn't pronounce my own first name, and Mischief was a close I got. I grew out of that name and named myself Stiles. It's a play on my last name. Stilinski, like the Sheriff, you know." 

Sabrina looked out into the parking lot, where there was nearly every single deputy and his father. She didn't look scared. She looked crazy. 

"So you thought what you could come in here and distract me? That's not going to work."

"Actually, it was to make sure that Derek didn't try and rip your limbs off of your body and beat you with them. Which would just get him shot, and I don't think that I want that. I mean, Malia had enough kids to take care of, and she doesn't need another added. The rest of the pack? Yeah, they don't need to be raising a kid right now. And I mean, I am not sure how it would work, but I'm pretty sure that the Alpha spark would go to her, and no one needs a teething nearly toddler Alpha running around."

"Do you ever shut up?" Sabrina demanded as she moved the gun from Derek to Stiles. 

Three things happened right then. There was the sound of glass breaking. There was the growl of Derek, and then there was a pain in Stiles. He felt his arm screaming in pain and looked down to see the bullet hole there. The growl turned to a whimper, and then there was Derek there, holding him up, and his hand was over the wound, taking the pain of it. Stiles looked into his face, and he saw there that Derek loved him. Stiles opened his mouth, but the shock of being shot, the adrenaline come down from rushing in, and the pain drain had him passing out. 

Waking up was an adventure that Stiles wasn't sure he wanted a trip on again ever in his life. He was warm, he knew that, but he also knew from the smell that he was in the hospital. That meant that he was going to get a lecture from his dad. He knew he had done something stupid, but he hadn't thought that she was going to actually shoot him.

"I know you are awake, Stiles," Derek said. 

Stiles refused to open his eyes, but he turned his head a little toward where he knew Derek's voice had come from. He didn't move the arm that he knew he had gotten shot in. He did move the other and tried to grab the blanket that was on his person and push it down. Though instead of finding that he had a blanket on him, he had a baby. Or to be correct, it was a puppy. It had to be Sasha.

The door to the room opened up, and Stiles tried to act like he was asleep. 

"I need your statement, Derek. We heard everything that was said in there, so we need to know who Papa is. The whole town knows that Sasha calls you Dada."

"I didn't even realize it until she cried out for him one night. She's only met him a few times, but she was born with a pack bond to myself and to my mate. I didn't realize the full bond until I became the Alpha, not what the bond had turned into that is."

"Malia told me about mates. It's less about knowing who they are immediately but something your wolf chooses."

"Yes. My inner wolf chose him a long time ago, and I've been fighting against that for a long time. I had hoped to build up a friendship again, but he started to avoid me and then started to just avoid anywhere that I could be so that he didn't have to run into me. I left him alone, but she found him one day. We are never going to be that, and I don't know how to tell her that." 

"And there is no chance?"

"I don't know. I have a feeling that my Betas figured it out and started to teach her Papa." 

Stiles felt Sasha move, and then he had a baby on him instead of a puppy. He tried not to alert anyone that he was awake, but Sasha was moving just enough that he was afraid of her rolling off of him. He tightened his hold, and she rubbed her face against his neck. 

"Papa," Sasha said. Her hands tugged on his hospital gown. 

"I see," Stiles's dad said. The tone was soft and gentle. 

"I have a lot of paperwork to do. Just come by the office when you get out with him. Everyone is going to want to see him before you take him home.

"Noah, I never-"

"No, I know why you broke up with him. I know everything. Malia was more than helpful with that, and she's part of why I left to go see him as much as I did when he was in school. Just be honest. Despite his lies to me about the supernatural at first, he hates being lied to. It's part of why he was so pissed off at Scott about the whole bite thing. Forcing you to bite Argent. Even though he had pulled back, he was the one who figured out how horrible Raeken was and made sure I was able to get him thrown into juvie prison for what he had done to his parents over the years and then tried as an adult for other crimes as we built them up as he was in juvie. He'll not get out for a long time for the death of his sister. Just be honest, and he'll come around." 

Stiles didn't hear anything else other than the shutting of the door, and as soon as it was shut, Stiles opened his eyes to look at Derek. Derek wasn't shocked at all that he was awake. Stiles figured that he heard the uptick in his heart. Derek had said what he needed without having to actually say it to Stiles. 

"So, you love me?" Stiles asked.

"Stiles," Derek said.

"Nope, I'm stuck in this bed, and I have your pup. You are going to tell me the truth, the whole truth, or I will never speak to you again."

Derek made a distressed noise at that and rubbed his hand over his face. He walked over and dropped down into the chair that was beside the bed. Sasha wiggled but didn't wake up or try and move any more than that. 

"How long have you known we had a bond?"

"After you left. I couldn't stop looking for you. Then I noticed the bond that I had with you, and it was different than the rest of the pack, but you were human. Scott had bonds with everyone, but not all of us Betas had bonds. Even Jackson being so far away, I could feel that bond. Ethan was the same. I hated it so much, but I wasn't ready to go after you. Then you settled elsewhere after school instead of coming home. There were good reasons why, but it was still horrible. I felt you come home, but you only went to see Malia, and then after that, she always came to you. It was as close to a declaration that you wanted nothing to do with any of it as you could get. Then Jackson came back as an Alpha who didn't want the power. When I became Alpha, I felt the different bond for what it was." 

"Mates."

"I didn't know what to do about that. Every single full moon since that one, she's tried to get to you. We have to keep her away."

"No one told me."

"Malia told me that it was my job and that she wasn't ever going to bring it up. That I needed to man up."

"You hurt me. You went after every single point that you had learned would hurt me. I didn't even go after any point like that, even when I was pissed at you. Though I do want to state for the record that you need to stop dating women. You attract the weirdos. I'm unsure on Braeden for the time you were doing that, but in her own way, she had issues. She wasn't homicidal at all."

"And you are not all that sane either." Derek had a soft smile on his face. 

"Never proclaimed to be, but I'm also not homicidal. Braeden probably just got her kicks killing people for money and for the Government." Stiles looked over at the IV that was beside him. He recognized the names for a single painkiller and an antibiotic that he was usually put on. He frowned. 

"Are you in pain?"

"No. I just know that neither of those things acts like truth serum for me. It must be how tired I am." 

"Your body is healing up, and the bullet was laced with wolfsbane, so it was a little harder to get your wound clean. They already ran you on the stuff to clear that out of your system. You are correct, and if she had shot me, it would have killed me if her aim was good enough. Once the doc sees you, you'll be released." 

Stiles looked at the antibiotic to see that it was pretty much empty, the last few drops were heading down the line. He hated it all. He hated that another psycho had tried to take Derek's family from him. 

"What are you willing to do?" Stiles asked. 

"Anything. God, Stiles. I'll do anything." Derek slipped to sit down on the edge of the bed, and he cupped the side of Stiles' face. Warm lips pressed to his forehead. "Except leave you alone. I am afraid that letting you slip from my life is something I've learned I can't do." 

"Take me to your place. I'm sleeping in the guest room, but I'll stay there until I'm released to go back to work. I like my house. I don't want to move out, but for now, we can kind of...go back and forth."

Derek let out a small sob, and then his face was in Stiles' neck, opposite his daughter. His hands were gentle as they held onto Stiles, never pressing hard enough to hurt at all. He was still like that when the door opened, and the doctor came in. 

Hours later, Stiles was propped up on Derek's couch with Sasha on the floor at his feet, playing with a few toys that Derek said were her favorite. Malia was there with all four of her kids, and while Sasha liked them, she didn't like to be too far from Stiles. 

While Stiles was adamant about sleeping in the guest bed, he wasn't sure that at least one Hale wasn't going to slip into bed with him in wolf form to make Stiles feel a little better. It had been a long time since Stiles had shared a bed with anyone. Sex was sex, and he never stayed over long enough after orgasm to get comfortable at all. 

The couch shook, and Stiles looked over to see Derek sitting beside him. He had two plates full of food in his hands and handed one over to Stiles. Stiles looked to see that Sasha had her own plate of finger foods on the coffee table beside her. Malia's kids had eaten before coming over. Stiles knew that Derek had invited her so that he wasn't as worried about being alone with Derek. It was nice, but it wasn't needed. 

"Thanks," Stiles said as he took the plate from Derek and lifted it up to snag a chip with his tongue. It was barbeque flavored, which was his favorite. He wondered if it had been part of what Malia had brought with her or just something that Derek had on hand. He had been shoved into the couch and wasn't allowed up to do anything but using the bathroom. The trip to the station had worn him out. He was glad for the care that he was getting, but he really wanted to snoop around. He would have to wait until Derek was cooking dinner to be able to do that. 

"Welcome. I made the sandwich the way you like."

"You-" Stiles cut himself off. Of course, Derek remembered that kind of stuff. He liked to torture himself with that kind of shit. "You said you would do anything for me, to prove yourself."

"Yes," Derek said.

"Then let go. We are starting over, clean slate. Don't torture yourself because you think that I will be happier if I see you groveling. I don't. Just be yourself and stop being a martyr. I fell in love with you once, and I'll do it again, but I don't want to love a person who is being a shade of themselves. I want Derek Hale."

"Sure, I can do that." Derek sounded choked up, and he turned toward Stiles to face him, his leg slipping up onto the couch and making a barrier. "I just need one thing from you."

"To sleep in your bed, so my scent is there to remind you that I am here?"

Derek blushed at that and nodded his head.

"Yeah, I can do that. Wolf form, though. I'm not ready for the octopus, that is you." Stiles settled his plate onto his leg, and he grabbed the sandwich up. His injured arm was in a sling, and while he had stitches, he knew that showering was going to be a trial. He looked at Derek and then down at Sasha. Trust that was the big thing. Stiles had to learn to trust Derek again. It was going to be slow progress, but he knew that he also had to make a few forays into it to show Derek that he was willing. 

"Is it okay?" Derek asked. 

Sasha screamed a little and jumped to take off, running toward where Malia's kids were playing under the large dining room table. Stiles laughed.

"Yeah, it's okay, Derek. Thank you." Stiles set the sandwich down and reached for his drink. It was just tea from a pitcher in the fridge, unsweet, but it was good. He chased the straw around, and Derek made a noise just as Stiles caught it. He looked at Derek to see his eyes were a little dilated. He had forgotten how much of a mouth fixation Derek had. "I'm going to need help showering."

"Malia offered," Derek said.

"Yeah, I know, but I thought it would be a good trust-building exercise for us. I feel gross as hell right now. After I eat? Before Malia leaves so, she can watch Sasha?"

"You want to trust me that much already?"

"I want to show you that I do. No funny business, but I won't mind if you stay in the shower and jerk off after I'm out. I can drip dry for a few minutes while you do that."

"I don't think I could do that."

"I think you could. I expect you to wash my back and legs. Maybe my front. I've not let a lot of people touch me a lot over the years. Sex was quick, and I usually fucked them. It'll be good for both of us." 

Derek nodded his head before he smiled. He leaned over and kissed Stiles' forehead. Stiles tipped his head up though and bumped their cheeks together, he rubbed them together then pressed a kiss to the edge of Derek's mouth. Derek took it as the permission it was and kissed him thoroughly. Sasha squealed, and then there was a baby in their laps. Derek recused both of their plates as Sasha tried to hug them both at the same time. 

Stiles' heart raced as he took in the sight that they were. Maybe a little broken, but those cracks would heal over time, with love, attention, and care added to them, they would heal up just fine.

# The End

**Author's Note:**

> I write fanfiction for fun. It's a hobby and a stress relief. I refuse to stress over my writing. What you see is what you get. Errors, plot holes, and all. Thank you for reading my story! 
> 
> I can be found on MeWe [here](https://mewe.com/i/beccaqueen1), join me there and we can discuss my fics and whatnot. 


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